Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/84

 pointed out to me in the valley, about three miles beyond where we had dined, some thin wreaths of smoke, proceeding, they said, from the camp of the tribe they were unwilling to meet.

At sundown we had reached the crest of the range, between the Bellengen and its southern branch; it was here of very inferior altitude to what it was more inland, where I had crossed it before, as its elevation above the sea did not exceed fifteen hundred feet. To attain the summit, was however toilsome enough for us, after our long day's walk, which had been infinitely more fatiguing than the same distance would have been on ordinary ground; for, in addition to forcing our way through entangled briars and creepers, we were incessantly compelled to clamber over huge fallen trees, and other obstructions in the brushes. We had a fine view from this point of the noble chain of mountains on the north side of the Bellengen. Here, like the view I had of these mountains more inland, universal brush seemed to clothe them to the summits. From their great height and abruptness, they appeared quite close, but even on making allowance for this, their summits could not be more than seven or eight miles from the river. This range preserved a very great altitude even close to the coast, for several summits, not more than eight or nine miles in a direct line from the ocean, seemed to be upwards of three thousand feet above the sea, and they gradually increased in altitude as they